Misère Poker

I’ve been pondering a misère poker tournament. A misère game is a modification of a game where each player tries to lose the original game (modified with peer assistance from “where you try to lose,” because you never try to lose). So the first one out wins.

What kinds of hands would you play? Low ones, of course. But you’d try to convince your opponent that you’re beating him but you don’t know it. This is a hard thing to do. I wonder if some modification of the game is necessary, like if you fold you take the money in the pot (misère chess needs modifications to be interesting). If I can figure out an appropriate modification, we’ll play one at 6:30 next Saturday.

Another not-quite-so-esoteric variant I’ve been considering is a “bounty-only” game. Everyone puts up, say, $5 in front of them. When you take someone out, you take their bounty and add it to yours. Here’s the kicker, though: if you take someone out and they have more bounty than you, then they get to keep the difference. That is, you can only take as much as you have. We might play that next Saturday, too. I’m going to do it before our 7:30 game, so those who just want to play regular Hold’em As God Intended It can.